The H-1B visa program allows American companies and universities to employ foreign scientists, engineers and programmers in the United States. The program has been criticised domestically for displacing American workers, and by the source countries for encouraging the brain drain. However, the program (and similar ones operated by other technologically advanced countries) provides an incentive for companies not to move their operations abroad. Earnings remitted by foreign workers are a major source of foreign exchange for some developing countries, easing their burden of debt.